I’m pretty sure the last film I saw @ the Allston was some terrible B scifi flick with
then Coolidge staffer/later Projectionist JFR and the younger brother of former Coolidge
staffer Jen D. on comps called in by ye olde Coolidge in October of 1993.
Ironically that was before I moved to Allston… by then they only seemed to be
half-open and I couldn’t be convinced to go to that theater, even with comps…

I didn’t start going to the Circle until the late 70s, it’s really amazing to imagine back in the day. The major thing I remember about the Circle in my many years of going there was those awful green-clad chairs.

As an aside for I.M. Judge, I used to work @ the Coolidge back in the early 90s, and when we had Aladdin (don’t ask how and why we got that, I’m going to try to avoid airing the Coolidge’s extensive dirty laundry) we were also showing the Lesbian love drama “Claire of the Moon.” We were selling out both shows multiple times a day… those were amusing crowds.

One last point for the previous poster regarding the Chestnut Hill theater… Newton people don’t walk!

If I remember correctly, as of several years ago there were 598 seats in “Moviehouse I” (the large theater). I heard from a former coworker that seats had recently been replaced?

Oh, one tidbit, there’s still an organ room in Moviehouse I from back when the stage was in use. It isn’t publicly accessible (good thing, you have to climb up a rather treacherous ladder and climb through a trapdoor to access it. If you’re in MHI and look to the exit door directly to the right of the screen, it’s above that, concealed by curtains. There is no organ, but there are still openings for pipes in the ceiling.

Funny, my childhood memory of the Newton Center theater was that it was only in the downstairs location (where the Kaplan center is now). Either I’m misremembering or by the time I would’ve been going there perhaps it had already been downsized?

I can’t speak to the Natick or Wellesley Hills theaters, but I grew up in Newton Corner in the 1970s; there’s no comparison between the West Newton and the old Paramount.

I was terribly up in arms when they tore down that whole block. There’s a book about the destruction, in which my father was interviewed, I could try to find out the name of the book. If my memory serves me correctly the block had already been vacated so the building could be torn down (it was replaced by an office building).

The only thing I remember about the Paramount at this point was that I saw “The Empire Strikes Back” there with a friend, the first time I’d gone to the movies without an adult present. My best friend and I formed a “gang” called “The Vikings” in an attempt to combat the destruction of the theater, being about 8 at the time you can imagine how effective that was.